Rural districts dealing with school-nurse shortages

Legislation in Congress would give grants to states that have a student-to-school nurse ratio of 1,000 to 1 or higher – a growing problem in rural America. In north central Illinois, Tom Collins reports for the LaSalle News Tribune that some nurses are obligated to care for more than 1,200 students, and those schools with less than 300 enrollments do not have an on-site nurse available.

In schools with nurses, the average ratio is 840 students per nurse. But the norm is much higher than that, and is only expected to grow with budget cuts and a weak economy. The school districts in Princeton, Ill., rely on one nurse for more than 1,300 students and Mendota Elementary has one nurse and more than 1,350 students among three buildings. “Our nurse keeps quite busy trying to rotate through the buildings to treat and medicate students at appropriate times,” Burress told Collins, adding that each building has students with medical needs like diabetes that require nurse supervision. In addition to those duties, nurses administer state-required exams for vision, hearing and lice throughout the year.

Collins reports that administrators like Dan Marenda aren’t holding their breath for Congress to act. “The problem with federal legislation is even when it passes we don’t always get the money they tell us we’re going to get,” he said. “So what happens is you continue to take money out of local funds to pay for the mandates.” (Read more)